OCCASIONAL NOTES. 339 
placed in a hole in a tree, but other situations are occasionally fixed on; 
I have found it exposed to the air on the top of pollard-ash and willow trees. 
I once met with this species nesting on the floor in a belfry; there were 
two or three nests in close proximity to the bells; and the late Mr. J. J. 
Briggs found them building underneath the railway-bridges overspanning 
the Trent. They will also nest in rabbit-burrows, and Mr. Harting 
discovered them nidifying in cliffs facing the sea (‘ The Field,’ 14th April, 
1866, and ‘ Birds of Middlesex,’ p. 134, note), and other observers have 
testified likewise. The nest of the Stock Dove, however, may also be met with 
very late in the season; I found two fresh eggs in a hollow ash tree on the 
2nd October, 1875. J am informed, on good authority, by a collector, that 
he has found this bird’s eggs inside a deserted Magpie’s nest. I have 
noticed the Stock Dove as plentiful in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, 
Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire. It breeds abundantly 
in all five counties, and may often be called common.—C. Marrunw Prior 
(The Avenue, Bedford). 
{During the summer of 1865 a pair of Stock Doves nested in the belfry 
of the old church at Kingsbury. The following summer they returned and 
again had a nest there. We secured the young and reared them in an 
aviary, that the identification of the species might be placed beyond doubt. 
The details will be found recorded in ‘ The Ibis’ for 1867, p. 880.—Eb.] 
GULLS BREEDING IN WESTMORELAND.—It is perhaps not generally 
known that a considerable number of Lesser Black-backed and Herring 
Gulls (Larus fuscus and L. argentatus) breed regularly on Foulshaw Moss, 
near Arnside. Twenty years ago the colony was of small dimensions, the 
nests being placed, comparatively speaking, close together. Since that 
time, owing apparently to all the eggs having been taken on one occasion, 
the birds have spread out over an area of several hundred acres, and, 
having in the meantime largely increased in numbers, there are probably 
at present not less than two or three hundred broods of young birds. 
The eggs were laid this year about May 24th, a week or two later than 
usual. The Lesser Black-backed birds seem to exceed the Herring Gulls 
in the proportion of nearly ten to one. The most noteworthy fact in 
connection with these Gulls is the immense havoc they cause amongst the 
fish in the neighbouring river, the Kent. Young salmon and sea-trout up 
to a couple of pounds or more in weight fall victims to their attacks in 
large numbers; and the remains of these, as well as of crabs, shell-fish, &c., 
which strew the moss in the vicinity of the nests, testify to their extreme 
voracity. The Grouse, which are tolerably plentiful in the locality, are 
being gradually expelled from their original haunts, and, though it does not 
seem to have been proved that the Gulls will actually devour the young 
birds (possibly the resemblance to their own progeny would prevent this), 
